Monterey Bay Aquarium

Today being the start of the presidents day long weekend, we thought it might be a good idea to do something longweekendish. So we decided to drive 45min south west to Monterey and check out the aquarium. We got there around 11:30 and found parking and headed over to famous Cannery Row.Cannery Row is full of stores, seafood restaurants and other wharfy stuff. We arrived at the front doors of the aquarium to a 30min wait to get tickets. The tickets were 25 dollars each(children 3 and under free). We went in with high expectations because of all the great things we heard. The aquarium is simply that, a large aquarium of fish. Don't get me wrong it was neat and Sienna loved all the underwater glass tanks and the touchy feely zone. We were disapointed that there were no dolphins, seals, otters or anything. I guess we were hoping for more of a Sea World experience. Good grief the section called otter bay was a deck overlooking an inlet of water the otters sometimes hang out at(not today). The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a neat place to check out fish and a hundred types of kelp but I think the $25 admission should be more like $15 at the most. Now for all you that may come this way for a visit and are dissapointed at my review, feel relief that Monterey it self is a cool little town with lots of shopping, golf, Restaurants. Walking Cannery Row and Fisherman's warf is worth the trip.

Watch the very end of the first video, typical Sienna. The second video is the result of letting some stranger take a family picture for you.

Did you catch the very end of the first video. Well if you didn't Sienna falls on her face after the end of the video

picnic in the park and Social Security

Today we were in Gilroy for the day. Elizabeth had to go get her social security number from the Gilroy office. I'm amazed at how easy it has been to move to the US, everything from the border to the California nursing license to a social security number has been quick and easy. After we got the SSN we decided to get some lunch and head over to a really nice park we saw the other day. It was a huge park with a big picnic bbq area for large groups. The play area for kids was quite extensive as well. I think this will be a fun place to bring Sienna to play because it will be close to our house and has lots of kids to play with.

Tonight was the start of allstar weekend for the NBA so I stayed home and watched that this evening and Elizabeth and Sienna went to the local Rec center for some sweet swimming action. In Victoria they had a toonie swim in the evenings, well here they don't have toonies so they have the $12 swim night. $12 can you believe that!!!!!!!! the pool wasn't even that big. That's it for today pretty uneventful. Not sure what the weekend holds for us besides the rest of allstar weekend. There is talk of heading to Monterey or maybe exploring some of San Jose.

Poor Sienna left by the tree at such a young age. Sounds familiar hey sis.

Don't worry mommy's here.

Valentines and Bank accounts

Today of course was Valentines Day, the one day of the year to be romantic to your significant other. Today we didn't spend tons of money on chocolates, flowers or other gifts, instead we opened a US bank account(steamy). Even though we didn't go all out on gifts this year, we have grown closer in the last few weeks by spending time together. I've said it before on the blog, I am so thankful for the time that me and Elizabeth have spent together. After having Sienna it seemed as though it was harder and harder to get quality alone time together. With both of us off work we get to go to the park, store or even the bank together, sounds simple but it's great. I love my wife with everything I have, and I love Sienna just the same.
Her's a little video of Elizabeth and Sienna playing hide and seek.

Needles and ...

Not much happening today, I'm sorry to say. This morning Elizabeth had to be at the hospital at 7:30 for a CPR coarse which she scored 100% on. Me and Sienna just stuck around the hotel a had breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast is actually not bad, every morning they have sasusage, bacon, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles, french toast cereal and other treats. I usually stuff my pie hole full to overflowing and then have a late lunch. After Elizabeth finished the coarse we went out to the outlet mall again to check out another section, we have to familiarize ourselves with every store so when we actually get some money we will know where to blow it all. Speaking of blow, Elizabeth also had to take a drug test this afternoon at the hospital. They did a physical exam followed by the drug test. She met her boss and some other nurses on her walk around the hospital. It turns out that almost 50% of the nurses at the hospital are from Canada. The couple she met were imports from Canada 20 years ago and are still working there. After the hospital we hit Panera Bread again for supper and again it was amazing. We both will be thankful to have our own house again so we can settle in. That's it for now, don't know what's in store for tomorrow.

Santa Cruz and Chuckie Cheese?

Today was the day we chose to check out Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is approx. 35 min away from Gilroy, and is accesible by going up and over Hecker Pass which is basically a mountain park. The drive is pretty nice, it reminds me of Golstream with all the trees. Santa Cruz is the Appitomy of California lifestyle, with long sandy beaches, great surfing, a huge drive out pier with shops and restaurants and a huge beach side amusement park. It is so beautiful there, I think I like it more than Santa Monica beach now. So as we drove to the beach this morning a light in our truck came on that sais "check gauges" and the oil pressure needle dropped off. of couse I start freaking out thinking that I would have to fork over hundreds of dollars to fix this car repair at the worst time possible. It turns out that after driving a couple thousand kilomiters you should probably check the oil at some point. I stopped at the first gas station and put a couple quarts of oil in and everything was hunkie dorie, go figure. Anyways the day at the beach was great we got some sun, watched some beach volleyball and surfing. I think that will be a place that we will enjoy going weekly this spring and summer, and all you guests will enjoy it as well.

After the beach we decided to drive back to Gilroy for some dinner. As we drove we spotted a world renowned restaurant for all ages. Chuckie Cheese called out to us like the sweet song of a Siren calling out to a fisherman. We've never been to one so we figured why not, Sienna will love it. Sienna did love it, a lot! We got her the salad buffett with all kinds of good treats for her but she ate nothing. We couldn't drag her away from all the other distractions long enough for her to stuff a piece of cheese in her pie hole. it's a great place for the kiddies and for kids birthdays, but I was counting the seconds after a few seconds being there. All in all another great day. Tomorrow Elizabeth take a CPR course and get a drug/physical test at the hospital. Me and Sienna get to hang for the day.

Sac town

Sacramento, right near Arco arena where the Sacramento Kings play
Mia Hamm? or Sienna Booth?
Sienna after finishing a can of Dora the Expolorer pasta

Today we had to drive back to Sacramento which is 1:45min north. It was kind of a pain but necessary because elizabeth had to get her California nursing license from there. The only thing let is to get a social security number, so she can get paid for working. Although the drive was long it was worth it because we found a great new restaurant called Panera Bread. I don't know if they have them in canada, i've never seen one, but we had an amazing soup and sandwich there. it's like a Starbucks/bakery/mom's cafe mix. Not much else happening today, tomorrow we are thinking of going to Santa cruz for the day.

Church and shopping, two great activities.

Today we woke up and decided to go to the church that i went to when I came in December. The church is called South Valley Community Church. It's a very welcoming church of about 500 people we guessed. It is across the street and one block down from the Vineyards where we want to live. It has great worship and the pastor seems down to earth. Today was a bit different because the theme was football(for the probowl, which hardley anyone in canada even knows when it is). Outside as we pulled up to the church was 50yards of astro turf set ouot complete with yardage markings, goal posts and a lifesize Jerry Rice cut out. During the service they handed out 50/50 tickets for a draw to throw the football from 50 yards and get it trough a small hole in Jerry Rice's hands for $5000. This seemed weird to me too, but it was sponsored by a local company so it wasn't tithe money. Every Sunday morning the have coffee/lattes, donuts and other treats set up outside as you arrive, if this isn't reason enough to try a chuch I don't know what is(also today the gave out free hamburgers/hotdogs, pop, and chips). Oh and the service was fine too.
After church we headed to the Gilroy Premium Outlets to check it out. It is huge with more stores than you would ever hope for. To compare, the seattle outlet mall has 110 stores the gilroy outlet mall has over 145 stores and they are building a whole other section with 25 more stores. I think we'll be able to find what we need there. After that we came back to the hotel and went for a walk together, then elizabeth took Sienna to the park to play and I watched basketball. Another great day together. Hopefully this entry didn't bore you to death but I want to try to keep a record for anyone who does read this thing. Sorry no pictures hopfully next time.Watch this video and look at how fast Elizabeth runs down the slide.